The present invention relates to apparatus for effecting and regulating the delivery of rod-shaped articles from a source which supplies articles at a variable rate to a consumer which accepts and processes articles at a variable rate, particularly to apparatus for effecting and regulating the delivery of filter rod sections or plain or filter-tipped cigarettes, cigarillos or cigars from a producing machine or maker to a processing machine or consumer, for example, to a packing, tray filling, pneumatic conveying, filter cigarette making or like machine. Still more particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for direct and indirect or circuitous transport of cigarettes or other rod-shaped smokers' products from a source to a consumer, especially from a manufacturing machine to a processing machine. For the sake of simplicity, the apparatus will be described in connection with the transport of cigarettes or filter cigarettes; it will be understood, however, that the apparatus can be used with equal advantage for the transport of other rod-shaped articles which are being produced and/or treated in tobacco processing plants.
It is already known to install a magazine between a producing machine or maker (e.g., a filter cigarette making machine) and a processing machine or consumer (e.g., a packing machine) which latter is directly coupled to the maker. As a rule, cigarettes which are supplied by the maker enter and travel through the magazine on their way to the consumer. The capacity of the magazine is such that it can accept and store the output of the maker for a certain interval of time while the consumer is out of commission or is slowed down or arrested for another reason. Inversely, the magazine supplies cigarettes to the consumer for a certain interval of time when the consumer is in operation but the maker is out of commission or is slowed down or arrested for another reason.
German patent No. 1,532,271 discloses a magazine for cigarettes or the like which is open at the top so that cigarettes can enter its interior by gravity and come to rest on the uppermost layer of cigarettes in the magazine. Such magazines are not entirely satisfactory because the cigarettes are likely to be damaged or deformed during entry into the magazine and/or to become misaligned so that they cannot be properly evacuated for transport to the consumer.
German Offenlegungsschrift No. 1,957,002 discloses a modified magazine which receives cigarettes from below. This reduces the likelihood of misalignment; however, the cigarettes are more likely to be deformed or destroyed, especially if the magazine already contains a substantial supply of cigarettes whose weight rests on the freshly admitted cigarettes. The liklihood of deformation of cigarettes is also pronounced immediately prior to introduction into the lowermost zone of the magazine because the cigarettes must be advanced with a considerable force in order to displace the cigarettes in the magazine during entry into the lowermost region of the stack of cigarettes therein.
All presently known variable-volume magazines for cigarettes share the disadvantage that they receive, at least temporarily, each and every cigarette which is being supplied by the maker. Thus, a cigarette must enter the inlet of the magazine and must be discharged by way of the outlet in order to be capable of reaching the consumer. Such mode of transport lengthens the path along which the cigarettes travel from the maker to the consumer and increases the likelihood of changes in moisture content, deformation, loss of tobacco shreds and/or other damage. During travel through the magazine, a cigarette is subjected to rather pronounced mechanical stresses which contribute to the loss of tobacco shreds and often result in such deformation of cigarettes that they cannot be properly processed in the consumer, particularly in a packing machine. Many magazines for temporary storage of cigarettes are designed in such a way that the cigarettes which are being conveyed therethrough travel along a meandering path; this necessitates the use of complex conveyor systems, guides, rollers and other components and contributes significantly to the liklihood of damage and/or deformation.